Pettini's solo effort spares Essex pain

By Clive Ellis at Southend

12:01AM BST 13 Jul 2002

Essex (197 & 115-5) trail Worcs (373) by 61 runs

Bad light and an 18-year-old batsman making only his second championship appearance were all that stood between Worcestershire and an innings victory inside three days over their hapless promotion rivals.

Mark Pettini came through a fierce test of technique and temperament on a pitch tailor-made for spinners to score a worthy 58. Essex were spared terminal embarrassment when the umpires, fussily, took the players off for indifferent light three overs into the extra half-hour. Luck was a crucial adjunct to survival, and the travails of Aftab Habib in toiling to 13 off 59 balls and Andy Flower, not so long ago ranked as the world's leading Test player, showed that bowlers were the dominant species.

Tom Moody, the Worcestershire coach, estimated that a pair of international-class spinners would have wreaked havoc on this spongy pitch, even allowing for its basic slowness.

Gareth Batty has not reached that status yet, but his eight wickets in this match so far have confirmed him as the most successful spinner in the country.

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Seam claimed its token victim at the start of Essex's innings when Will Jefferson was lbw half forward, and Matthew Rawnsley produced a classic slow left-armer's dismissal to have an out-of-sorts Darren Robinson caught at slip.

Habib, playing no shot, was bamboozled by a ball from Kabir Ali that nipped back to hit the off-stump, and Pettini turned Batty to short leg soon after completing a 140-ball half-century.

Earlier, Steve Rhodes made a season's best 56 as Worcestershire extended their first-innings lead to 176.